Signature move: Marseille Roulette/the 360 turn

Zinedine Zidane

Zinedine Zidane was a player who had a great technique and could dribble very well. He had a great passing ability and also used alot of football tricks. One of his famoust tricks he used was the Zidane roulette, a trick named after him. Although several players like Maradona had done the Zidane roulette before, Zidane is the player who most often and effectively used the trick. Zidane won the World Cup 1998 by scoring 2 goals in the final against Brazil.

Biography of Zidane

Zinedine Zidane

When Zidane was born on 23 June 1972 in Marseilles France, his parents were just emigrated to France from Algeria in 1968. Zidane started his professional football career at Cannes in 1988 where he would play 4 years. He then joined Bordeaux in 1992 and won the Intertoto Cup in 1995 and finished runner-up in the 1995-1996 UEFA Cup. In 1996 Zidane made the transfer to the UEFA Champions League winner Juventus where he would stay until 2001.

Zidane at Juventus

In the 1996-1997 season Zidane won the Serie A at his first season with Juventus and lost the UEFA Champions League Final with 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund. One year later Juventus won again the Serie A and again reached the Champions League Final which they lost with 1-0 to Real Madrid.

European and World champion

After the final Zidane joined France for the FIFA World Cup in his home country France. France won the tournament by winning the final with 3-0 against Brazil, Zidane scored 2 goals in the final and was awarded FIFA World Player of the year in 1998.
Two years later at the 2000 European Championship in Belgium and The Netherlands France won again a tournament, this time by defeating Italy in the final with 2-1. Zidane scored 2 goals and was named player of the tournament by UEFA.

Zidane at Real Madrid

In 2001 after 5 seasons with Juventus in which he scored 31 goals he moved to Real Madrid for a then world record fee of �75 million. In the 2002 UEFA Champions League Final Zidane scored the winning goal by making a volley with his weaker foot. Madrid won with 2-1 against Bayer Leverkussen. The next season Real Madrid won La Liga, the Spanish championship. Zidane was awarded FIFA World Player of the Year 2003. In 2004-2005, 2005-2006 Madrid both ended second in La Liga and the 2005-2006 season was Zidane's last year at Madrid he would only play at the World Cup that year before ending his career.

World Cup 2006

At Zidane's last tournament, the FIFA World Cup 2006 France reached the final again. Zidane had been playing very well this tournament giving perfect passes to teammates and doing some nice dribbles. The final in Berlin against Italy would be Zidane's last match. After just 7 minutes Zidane puts France ahead by scoring a penalty kick. Then Materazzi scores 1-1 for Italy in the 19th minute. After 90 minutes the score is still 1-1 and the match was forced into extra time. In the 110th minute of the game Zidane who was in conlfict with Materazzi knocked Materazzi down with his head. Zidane was send of for his headbutt and France lost the final by penalties, it was Zidane's last match as a football player.